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Do Japanese
teams make salaries for American Players public knowledge?

I was wondering if you could answer this question for me or pass it along
to someone who might know.

Do Japanese teams make salaries for American Players public knowledge? What
is the typical minimum salary for a first year American player playing in
Japan.

Thank you in advance.

John

Gary Garland's Response

Hiya John!

First, thanks for reading Baseball Guru.com!

To answer your question, yes, all salary figures are indeed made public (though
in Roberto Petagine's case, the Yakult Swallows apparently didn't want anyone
to know that they had paid him $5 million this season).

Anyway, there is what you could call, I suppose, kind of a three tier system
for foreign players in Japan. For players who came up from the Hiroshima
Carp's baseball academy in the Dominican Republic, those players usually
get $35,000-50,000 a year and then it goes up if they stick around. Alfonso
Soriano originally came up through the Carp system.

For players who have come out of MLB minro league systems, generally you
will see then slotting in anywhere between $200,000-500,000 their first year.
Again, their salaries will go up as they stick around. For example, Tuffy
Rhodes and Alex Cabrera will make somewhere between $2-3 million next season.
Salaries in Japan are nowhere as high as they are in MLB. However, minor
league players make much more than their U.S. counterparts.

So to sum up, you have the Carp Academy players, who get what is a low wage
by the standards of the other players, you have the newly signed refugess
from MLB, and ten you have the established foreigners who make much more
than either of the other two groups.

The Japanese have gotten smart and are no longer signing washed up players
at exorbitant salaries (Kevin Mitchell and Mike Greenwell are two notorious
examples). This has helped hold the line on foreign player payrolls.